Each capital has unique recognizable sights that instantly determine which city it is. In the main city of Russia, this is the Pashkov House. In Moscow, this is the name of the building immortalized in world literature by Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov, from whose gazebo at sunset Woland and Azazello examined the beautiful Moscow and said goodbye to her forever.
Who was the man who gave the name to the architectural masterpiece
“It was not for nothing that Bulgakov Mikhail placed his heroes, well, no, not in the house, but on the roof (Then in Moscow he was the tallest…)”. One of the most beautiful buildings was named by the ingenious author of The Master and Margarita, the Pashkov House in Moscow, built by order of the “first Russian vodka king”, Petr Yegorovich Pashkov, an ambitious and absurd (scandal with neighbors) person.
Not every captain-lieutenant (now a senior lieutenant), who served even in the elite Life Guards of the Semenovsky regiment, couldto build for your own pleasure "your own personal Kremlin" directly opposite the Moscow Kremlin. The rich farmer wanted to leave a memory for himself, and he succeeded - few people do not know the Pashkov House in Moscow. Many, admiring the architectural masterpiece, will want to know who was the owner, who was the author and executor of the project. So the grandson of Peter I's batman will be famous for centuries as a person who contributed to the unique charm of our capital, spread over seven hills.
One of the cities on the seven hills
There are more than a dozen cities in the world located on the same number of hills, including Rome, Constantinople and Washington. The names of the Moscow hills excite the imagination - Sparrow Hills, Lefortovo Hill, Zayauzye. Vagankovsky Hill, which since 1784 crowned one of the most striking sights of Moscow, is now united with the Presnya district and is called the "Three Mountains".
The very center of the capital
If you look at the map of the Central Administrative District, you can see that despite the address (Vozdvizhenka Street, 3\5, building 1), Pashkov House in Moscow stands at the intersection of Znamenka and Mokhovaya. The main exit leads to Starovagankovsky Lane, and the front facade of the building is turned to Mokhovaya Street, and then to Borodinsky Hill and the Kremlin. "The navel of the earth", and nothing more. In front of the palace, a terraced park with two stone pools, grottoes, sculptures, fountains, surrounded by a magnificent wrought-iron fence, a fragment of which was preserved from Znamenka toour days. Of course, on the territory of the site was the house church of St. Nicholas the Pleasant, owned by the Pashkovs. The Palace on Vagankovsky Hill was the first secular building in Moscow, and indeed in the country, from the windows of which Ivanovskaya and Cathedral Squares and the Kremlin were visible. Nearby is the Stone Bridge.
Architectural genius
Who in those days could be the author of such a masterpiece as Pashkov's house in Moscow? Architect Vasily Ivanovich Bazhenov (1738-1799), first vice-president of the Imperial Academy of Arts, a man whose merits to Russian architecture cannot be overestimated. It is enough to name the palace ensemble in Tsaritsyno, which he built for 10 years, and the Pashkov House in Moscow, to understand the scale of this genius of classicism.
The pinnacle of creativity
Especially good is his Moscow masterpiece. The fairy-tale castle, according to experts, was created on Vagankovsky Hill by Bazhenov. The Pashkov House in Moscow delights all connoisseurs of architecture not only with its unique beauty, but also with the “perfect, ideal ratio of all parts in a single structure.” This is how I. Grabar, a fine connoisseur and connoisseur of architecture, wrote. And he is not the only one who believes that Vasily Bazhenov, an academician of architecture, created a handsome palace, looking up, resembling a monumental sculpture on a pedestal. The Pashkov House in Moscow, whose style is classicism, has become a symbol of this trend in Russia. Located at an angle to the surrounding streets, the house looks better at some distance, for example, from a point located at the very beginning of the odd side of Volkhonka.
Best angles
If you look at the house from a distance, you can trace a single compositional solution - the fence posts are continued by the stairs and the columns of the facade, the circular terrace wraps around the top of the elegant silhouette of the walls, above which the belvedere colonnade rises. Some sources say that the original color of the walls was orange. This rather large architectural masterpiece gives the impression of an airy, skyward castle.
National Treasure
The house was so good, and was of such value for Moscow, that after the fire of 1812, which did not pass by the Pashkovsky Palace, funds for its restoration, despite the fabulous we alth of the owners, were allocated from the state treasury. The palace was a Moscow miracle - festive fireworks and illuminations were added to its beauty, arranged in honor of the frequent receptions given by the owners. Outlandish birds, sitting in expensive cages or walking in the park, increased the fabulous impression that Pashkov's house in Moscow made. The photos in the article show the palace from different angles, and you can see how good it is.
From hand to hand
Somehow it's a shame to read that some experts doubt Bazhenov's authorship.
The state treasury bought it from the last owner of the house from the Pashkov family in 1839 for university needs. But in subsequent times, the handsome house continued to change owners. So, already in 1843, the University Noble Boarding House comfortably settled in it, which, in turn, was transformed intoMoscow Noble Institute, later in 1852 - to the city gymnasium No. 4. In 1861, the Pashkov House was transferred to the Rumyantsev Museum.
The birth of Leninka
And in 1921, when more than 400 requisitioned personal libraries arrived here, all other departments of the museum were transferred to another building. The remaining books become the funds of the famous Leninka, which, again, in turn, became the Russian State Library. Who in Soviet Russia did not know this library? Even those who had no idea about the Pashkov House heard about it. The fame of this book depository was no less than the fame of Pashkov's house today. She was the heroine of many feature films, poems were written about her - “… and from the nineteenth century a library moved into the house! Well, the one called “Leninka” is always welcome here…”.
A place conducive to the birth of legends
With the change of so many owners, Pashkov's house in Moscow, whose architecture provides for a lot of secret and mysterious corners, has become overgrown with legends over the years of its existence. Not only the palace, but the entire Vagankovsky hill is full of mysterious voids, grottoes, underground caves, and, most importantly, a huge, 8 meters in diameter, lined with white stone, well was discovered under the Pashkov House. It is impossible to say where it leads, since the research was not completed due to the collapsed walls of the well and the fear of the collapse of the foundation of the building. And it is quite natural that an assumption arose (it was expressed, for example, by archaeologist I. Ya. Stelletsky) that it was here thatthe famous Liberia is kept - this is the name of the Library of Ivan the Terrible. Why not, because there are about 60 alleged places of storage of the legendary library, which was the dowry of the Byzantine princess Sophia Paleolog, who became the wife of Ivan III.
No worse than in English castles
One more legend of the Pashkov house cannot be ignored. She is pretty, but absolutely incredible - the ghost of Nikolai Alexandrovich Rubakin (1862-1946), the author of the recommendatory index "Among the Books" and "The Psychology of the Reader and the Book" lives in the mansion covered with myths. This man, a bibliologist and bibliographer, collected two large libraries (more than 200 thousand volumes) and donated them to the people. Who better than this "bookworm" (in the best sense of the word) to roam the halls of the country's main book depository! Fans of this man and the legend claim that if you ask him for help in finding the right book, he will never refuse.
After the restoration, which ended in 2009, the right wing of the mansion houses a repository of ancient manuscripts, and the left wing houses a music library.
Tours to the legendary house
They say that the entrance to the “underground Moscow”, where the state treasury was kept in case of fires that so often devastated the medieval capital, was located precisely on Vagankovsky Hill. Well, how else could Woland cast a farewell glance at Moscow? Pashkov's house in Moscow is unique in all respects. Tours around itshed light on many questions that interest tourists from all over the world, and give them the opportunity to admire the most beautiful view of the Kremlin. Excursions are very informative and are held daily. The meeting place, as a rule, is located opposite the Kutafya Tower of the Kremlin or at the monument to F. Dostoevsky, or at the exit from the metro station “Biblioteka im. Lenin. Tours are conducted by professionals, there are several directions - from the interior and decoration of the palace to the theme of Woland, that is, everything mystical that is associated with the most beautiful and mysterious building in Moscow - the Pashkov house.
